Paris Occupied: Space, Place and Resistance, 1940-1944

Since the liberation of Paris in August 1944, an unceasing fascination with capital's four long 'dark years' of Nazi occupation has encouraged the publication of a bewildering number of journals, memoirs, popular histories and academic studies. This vast historiography has expanded our understanding of the political, social and cultural metamorphosis that Paris underwent during this period, and how these changes affected the lives of Parisians and their German occupiers. Yet in engaging with these sources, historians have continued to ignore the vital importance that spatial factors played in the shaping of occupation experience. Rather than serving as a neutral backdrop, the complex and profound changes to people's lives were intimately connected to their perceptions of, and interactions with, their surroundings. The spaces and places of Paris - both real and imagined - were thus an essential determinant in the development and course of the occupation of Paris. In focusing on the phenomenon of Parisian resistance, this thesis will explore the relationships between various forms of resistance and a diverse selection of Paris spaces - cafés, underground spaces, stores and marketplaces, statues and memorials - to demonstrate the value of a spatial approach. Drawing on a range of contemporary French, British and German archival sources, newsreels, literary works, oral histories, diaries and personal accounts, it argues for the recognition of space as a missing dimension of occupation and resistance history.